Andrew Bird: Fever Year Documentary

Andrew Bird: Fever Year Trailer

Ever wanted to see how a fantastic musician crafts their music into something wonderful while keeping up with their touring commitments on the road? Then head off to see Fever Year an interesting music documentary about Chicago multi-instrumentalist, Andrew Bird.

Andrew is a clever songwriter who is classically trained in violin but can play the violin as if playing chords on a guitar. He is also a superb whistler who incorporates many whistling ditties in his tunes and he isn’t afraid of inventing words up just to liven up his songs. It sometimes sounds like poetry.

Fever Year is made up of stunning live concert performances interspersed with interviews recorded on the road during 2009-2010. During this time Andrew was suffering from a strange fever which made it difficult for him to perform, hence the name of the film!

It is an intriguing glimpse into how a gifted artist masters their instruments to create something magical. You will probably need to be a fan to appreciate the footage acquired for the documentary, otherwise you’ll need to be mad about colourful socks (I know many of you are!).

The film also captures an intimate performance of Andrew playing with St. Vincent (Annie Clark, formerly of The Polyphonic Spree).

Your opportunity to see the documentary is particularly limited as Andrew has decided not to release the documentary on DVD or in theatres. He is strictly screening the documentary at Film Festivals. I’m certainly glad I made the effort to go and watch it at the 2012 Melbourne Festival!

Despite the film’s limited release it has already won a few festival awards – including the Audience Award, Noise Pop Film Festival (2012) and Jury Prize, Best Documentary Feature, Omaha Film Festival (2012).

Sign up to the Fever Year Blog if you want to know when it will be shown in a town near you.

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About noisynoodle

I am a noisy noodle hailing from Melbourne, Australia who loves listening to noise in all forms, but preferably in music, TV and film. I’ve moonlighted on community radio at SYN-FM many years ago when I was still a “youth”. My mission is to promote live music (get off your bum and see something!), highlight interesting TV shows that are ignored by the ratings, expose some cool films and to not go deaf trying!